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Sett. 229. INFLAMMABLE SUBSTANCES. 44.I SECT. 229. (Additional.) Inflammable Air. Fire Damp. Aer Inflammabilis, This aeriform fubftance is eafily known by its property of inflaming, when mixed with twice or thrice its bulk of common atmofpheric air; and it may be fafely afi'erted to be the real phlogifton almoft pure [<«], tain experiments, that, for iuftance, the vapour of water abforbs about 800 degrees of heat beyond that of its boding flate ; from whence it follows, that whenever there is a quan- fvf watery vapours produced by combuflion, very little Senfible fire muft be felt, So when fpirits of wine are fired, the fenfible heat, which refults from the cembujllon, is very inconfiderablc, as the greatcft part is abforbed by the watery vapours that are then produced; but when the pliofphorus of kunkel catches fire, the heat is very ftrong, there being but a fmall quantity of acid to carry oft' the [pacific fi'e that is fet ' loofe. This is the moft fatisfaftory theory of the nature and procefs of combuflible bodies, and of their combuftion, fo far as the flate of our prefent knowledge has opened the field of our views into the Operations of Nature. ‘The Editor. [a] 1 he late eminent Philolopher, Profefl'or Bergman, fpeaking of phlogijton, in his admirable Treatife upon Elective Attractions, fays, that “ the infiammablc air extracted from metals, contains pblogifion almolf pure; and that the two celebrated Philofophers, Prieftley and Kirwan, feem to have cleaily proved the exiftencc of phlogifton, both analytically and fynthetically : fo that, according to him (this laft named gentleman), all reafons for doubting are now removed. This phlogiftic principle, when in combination, may be let loofe by various methods : having recovered its elafticity, and gained an aerial form, by a proper addition of fpecific heat,
